Softball Hitting For Power Basics

By Brad Henks

Watching some of the best hitters in baseball and softball makes us want to hit just like them. There are great home run hitters like Babe Ruth, Albert Pujols, Crystl Bustos and some others. They all command attention when they step up to the plate because of their explosive hitting power.

Here are some tips to help you become a better, more powerful softball hitter. Implement these at your next softball practice.

1. To be a powerful softball hitter you will need to be powerful and in great shape physically. Work on this by do exercises that will build power such as squats, plyometric jumping drills, long jumps over boxes. Work on your triceps, and chest by doing medicine ball drills or dips for a few ideas. You can come up with more I'm sure.

2. Learn to hold the bat properly. A lot of young players naturally, but mistakenly grip the bat way too firmly. If you loosen your grip on the bat you will be able to swing the bat much faster and it will feel better. You need to have loose wrists and grips. There is even a line of batting gloves out there that help you keep a looser grip on the bat.

That should tell you how important this is for a powerful swing.

3. Do some one handed batting drills. Use a tee, swing the bat with the top hand only. Then repeat using only the bottom hand. Do about 10-15 wings each. This will strengthen your arms and hands. Also gets you into proper alignment with the bat and your body.

4. Using both hands, remember that your front hand pulls the bat while your back hand pushes the bat. Beginners may find this a little tough but stick with it and you will get the hang of it soon.

5. Step to the plate correctly. Align yourself about in the middle of the batters box to give yourself plenty of room to see the pitch and time to swing properly at it.

6. Get a good view of the pitcher. Make certain you are looking straight at the pitcher with both eyes. Hold your chin on your front shoulder to put your head in the proper alignment.

7. Watch the ball all the way to your bat. Don't close your eyes and don't be distracted by the infielders moving or the base runner starting to steal a base. Keep your eye on the ball as they say. This will help you track the ball for a more powerfull softball hit.

8. Let your weight shift forward as you make contact with the ball. Allow your back foot to slide forward a couple of inches. This will put all your power into the hit.

9. Focus on hitting the inside seam of the softball. This will make the ball go back up the middle for a hard hit line drive. These are really hard for infielders to get to.

10. When you hit the ball, run as hard as you can all the way through first base. Your coach will tell you if you need to keep going.

There you go, some basic softball power hitting tips. Practice these at home on a tee or with a friend. What are you waiting on, go out and learn to become a true power softball hitter.

Talk about Fastpitch Softball over at http://FastpitchSoftballTalk.blogspot.com/.

The author is a fastpitch softball enthusiast and has been involved in fastpitch softball and baseball for 20 years as a parent and coach. For more information please visit http://www.BuyFastpitchGloves.com for some of the best fastpitch softball gloves and related accessories.

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our Little-Known Baseball/Softball Training Secrets, PART 1

Four Little-Known Baseball/Softball Training Secrets, PART 1
By Steve Zawrotny

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Train for POWER

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Baseball and softball are not games of strength, but of EXPLOSIVE POWER. Just how strong do you have to be to pick up a 5 oz baseball, or a 30 oz bat? On the other hand, propelling that 5 oz ball 90+ mph, or hitting a ball 400+ feet with that 30 oz bat requires tremendous power - the ability to perform work. In this case, the work of playing baseball and softball at a high level.

In both games, while they can be slow in duration, the various activities that comprise a game are short and quick. Rarely does a play take longer than 6 or 7 seconds. There are exceptions, of course - an inside the park homer, or an extended rundown or "pickle." But, for the most part, things happen very quickly on the diamond.

Why does this matter to you?

Well, let me ask you this: how often have you heard coaches tell pitchers to condition themselves by running laps - Long, Slow Distance (LSD) training, or to spend a lot of time pedaling a bike?

If you've been around as long as I have, you've seen this a lot. Here's the problems: these coaches (and many players) incorrectly think that LSD (or aerobic) conditioning improves player performance. In fact, studies show the aerobic demands (the amount of oxygen needed by the body) of baseball and softball to be very low.

In fact, the oxygen uptake of a baseball pitcher (the most active position) is a low 45% of the maximum needed. Apparently the rest pitchers get between each pitch and in-between innings is sufficient to replenish the main energy system used.

Baseball and softball are considered to be "alactic anaerobic" sports in terms of the energy system utilized, with pitchers in both sports the busiest players on the field. What this means is that there is little to no lactic acid buildup as a result of this activity. That burning feeling you get when you lift weights really hard is a result of a buildup of lactic acid, a by-product of that (and other) short-term, intense types of exercise.

Have you ever heard of a ball player complaining of this problem?

Consider the baseball pitcher: it takes about 0.15 seconds from the time the front foot contacts the ground until the ball is released. Very little lactic acid can be built up in this short burst of activity. The primary source of fatigue in pitching is not metabolic, but neural. [1]

Again, why does this matter to you?

Because studies show that LSD training significantly detracts from power, strength, and speed development.

Reduce these characteristics, and you educe your ability to throw with high velocity, hit with power, and run at high speed. Look at the bodies of sprinters vs. marathoners. You don't have to be built like a sprinter to be successful as a ball player, but this illustrates how training affects one's body, conditioning, and hence, ability to perform.

Put another way: Train Slow, Perform Slow.

As mentioned earlier, aside from the game itself (which can be be long and slow) things happen quickly on the ball field. Playing softball and baseball requires high velocity, ballistic movements like throwing a fast, well located pitch, taking a hard swing at this high velocity pitch, and exploding out of the batter's box to sprint down the first base line.

So how should you train?

To augment the aforementioned activities, concentrate on developing power, flexibility, and speed. Weight lifting, plyometrics, flexibility, and short burst sprint interval training should form the basis of conditioning for baseball and softball players.

[1] Gambetta, V. A Big Windup. Training & Conditioning, p. 43 March 2003

Steve Zawrotny, MS, CSCS 405.373.3253 steve@baseballfit.com FREE REPORT: "Harmful Resistance Exercises Baseball/Softball Players Should Avoid" VISIT: http://www.BaseballFit.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Zawrotny

BatAction.com

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Softball Hitting - The Importance of Wearing Gloves

By Marc Dagenais

Softball hitting is one of the most fundamental skills in softball. A hitter must be good and excellent because most of the time, the victory of the whole team lies on his hands. The skill in softball hitting is not easy to learn. Before you see a softball hitter making a perfect swing out there in the field, he had already spent hundreds days and even nights just to do that. If you look at it from afar, it seems that softball hitting is very simple. You just need to swing, hit the ball and that's it. But it is more than that. It is more than what you perceive it to be.

If it is your first time to play softball and you choose to be a hitter, it will be a miracle if you happen to hit the ball that the pitcher throws on the first try. For sure you will miss it. What I am trying to say here is that softball hitting cannot be learned that fast. It will not just take hours. Sometimes it may even take hours or even years before one can perfect the art of softball hitting. Even professional players, no matter how famous or good they are do not stop practicing. There are lots of techniques that a player can do so that he will be able to improve his hitting prowess.

But before we go to those hitting techniques, this article will first focus on the equipments that are needed in softball hitting. Aside from the bat, the most important material that a softball hitter must have is the gloves.

Gloves have been introduced quite a few decades ago. They are proven to be helpful especially in the field of softball. Gloves are invented because players are tired of having hands that are full of blisters which are caused by the bat that they are holding. The blisters affect their performance during the game. This is the reason why gloves that can be used in sports are invented. They serve as the protection of the hands in the sport of softball.

It is really impossible to avoid blister, with so many swings that a hitter needs to do in every game. From then on, wearing of gloves for softball trainings and games became just an ordinary scenario. Some players are having second thoughts of using the gloves because sometimes they feel that they don't feel the bat correctly but as years pass by, several improvements on the glove happened. These improvements make wearing gloves a lot more comfortable for the players.

Today, players are always wearing them for each game. They said that because of the gloves, they now feel that their grip is better than before. Aside from that, even if they are doing a lot of practices, their hands are not experiencing any damages.

Gloves are really essential for every softball player particularly the hitter. Since this prevents them from having blisters, they are able to practice more. And because they can now practice more, they can now have more time to improve their skills in softball hitting.

Marc Dagenais is a softball peak performance coach that helps softball players and coaches improves their game by sharing with them the tips and strategies used by the world's best softball players and coaches to achieve extraordinary performances. Visit his site and sign-up to get his FREE softball hitting tips!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Marc_Dagenais


SoftballrUs.com/FastpitchSoftballSupply.com is the ultimate online fastpitch softball online store. SoftballrUs.com has Batting Trainers,Pitching Training, Training Bats,Defensive Training Equipment,Coaching DVDs & Books, Softball Pitching Machines, Softball Complete Net & Frame Batting Cage Packages, Batting Cage Nets, Protective Practice Screens and Nets, and BatAction Hitting Machines, and much, much more. Visit Softballrus.com now!